Search This Blog

Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Combating Stress with Yoga

Left unchecked, stress activates our sympathetic nervous system – the
“fight or flight” response. Interestingly, the body processes
different types of stress in the same way.

Physiologically, both a
critical deadline at work and a chance encounter with a mountain lion
produce the same response in the body; the sympathetic nervous system
kicks in with a boost of adrenaline and extra blood flowing to our limbs
to prepare us to combat the danger. But for the deadline at work, we
don’t need the sympathetic nervous system. What we need is calm, clear
thinking. Conscious, deep breathing stimulates your parasympathetic nervous
system. This is your “rest and digest” system – the system we’d like
running things most of the time. When it is in control our bodies’
systems are functioning normally and we are calm and level headed.The cool thing is we can train our bodies to keep the parasympathetic
nervous system in control, even under stressful conditions. In yoga, we
can put our bodies into poses that challenge it (different poses for
different bodies) and consciously breathe through the sensations we
feel. Through practice, our body learns to stay relaxed in a
challenging situation. This carries over to our daily lives. When we
start feeling anxious about a deadline at work, we remember to take a
moment to breathe deeply and consciously and our parasympathetic nervous
system stays turned on, keeping the sympathetic nervous system from
kicking in.Different poses are needed to challenge different bodies. If you are
bedridden, then sitting up at the edge of the bed might be your
challenge. If you are an avid cyclist, then poses that stretch your
hamstrings will be your challenge. If you’ve been hunched over your
computer screen for years, then back bends will be your challenge.

When we add challenging physical poses to the conscious breath practice,we can learn to override our body’s normal response to stress.